Life off the grid in the SW Texas desert. An experiment in sustainable living. NUMBERS AT THE END OF EACH BLOG POST: temp at 8PM,high temp,low temp,rainfall,wind conditions(CalmBreezyWindyGusty).

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Perpetual Project

Alas.....still no cooking with the solar oven. Most of the day invested in a base with wheels and the frame for the reflectors. Pretty tricky figuring and cutting the sides of the reflectors. Perhaps a cooking test tomorrow? Funny thing is....one can build a workable solar oven out of cardboard and oven bags in a matter of hours - I reckon mine is the deluxe version. It should certainly hold up better than cardboard...

Since my one year anniversary out here, I have felt an uneasy sense of urgency to get on the ball. I think it is because I got a bit lazy once I got cozy - now all I can think about are the days lost and what I have yet to accomplish. Also, last year at this time I was kicking ass getting my little house built. I reckon at this point it is best to fill my days with projects instead of fretting about what I haven't done yet. Less thinking and more doing.

My new blades arrived today for the next two wind turbines. Perhaps they will fly by the weekend. Priority number 1 is the oven as I'm just dying for my first solar cooked meal out here. Highlight of the day was an early evening fly by from the International Space Station. I waved - hope they waved back....

Only .o8" of rain from yesterdays sprinkle. Had little effect on my road other than settling the dust. That little bit of water froze in my National Weather Service rain gauge overnight - had to thaw it out to take the measurement this morning.

Don't you just love it when you hit the spell checker button and it replies with "no misspellings found"! Wouldn't you know that when I just wrote that last sentence - I misspelled misspellings!!

3 comments:

gezzer
said...

It sounds like u built and designed u r own wind gen. Did u use a car altaneter or what? How much power do you need? What do you run? I have thought about building one but am not very good at such things. inquiring minds want to know. Gezzer

Thanks to Ara and Spirit I found your site. We have been full-timing for over a year now and appreciate your efforts to become self-sufficient. Solar and wind has been a keen interest of ours, but the price/watt has been prohibitive for our budget. We enjoy boon-docking very much and have come up with ways that work for us dealing with conserving power and giving us the ability to stay off the beaten path for a couple of weeks at a time before returning to civilization to replenish necessities. We will look forward to reading about your progress. Thank you so much for sharing!

In my year off the grid - I have learned that I need very little electricity - just some 12volt lights at night and power for my laptop and modem. Jeff and Sandra - I got my starter panels from Harbor Freight, not the best in the world but a good deal when on sale for $175 for 45 watts of solar. Gezzer - the free plans for my wind gennies are at www.velacreations.com Where I live, solar is the main power source - wind is only to suppliment on cloudy/stormy days. cheers,TheFieldLab.